Friday, March 21, 2008

HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR US!

"The cross is not primarily a burden (although it is that indeed); it is first of all an instrument of death. Jesus demands of those who follow Him that they must lay their lives on the line; they must be ready to suffer as Jesus suffered. They must be willing to literally lose their lives."

from Spurgeon's sermon, "Christ's Marvelous Giving"

Do you see that dreadful procession going through the streetsof Jerusalem, along the rough pavement of the Via Dolorosa?

Do you see the weeping women as they mourn because of him?How is it that Jesus is willing to be led a captive up tothe hill of Calvary? Alas! they throw him on the ground!They drive accursed iron through his hands and feet.They hoist him into the air! They dash the cross into itsappointed place, and there he hangs, a naked spectacle ofscorn and shame, derided of men, and mourned by angels.

How is it that the Lord of glory, who made all worlds,and hung out the stars like lamps, should now bebleeding and dying there?HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR US!

Can you see the streaming fountains of the four wounds in hishands and feet? Can you trace his agony as it carves lines uponhis brow and all down his emaciated frame? No you cannot seethe griefs of his soul. No spirit can behold them. They were tooterrible for you to know them. It seemed as though all hell wereemptied into the bosom of the Son of God, and as though all themiseries of all the ages were made to meet upon him.

Now why is all this but that he gave himself for us till his headhung down in death, and his arms, in chill, cold death, hungdown by his side, and they buried the lifeless Victor in the tomb.HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR US!